Kopp Glass Inc. on July 1 appealed an Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) determination that one of its pot furnaces is subject to National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for glass manufacturing area sources.
Formerly known as Pittsburgh Lamp, Brass and Glass Company, Kopp Glass is permitted as a minor source (which excludes the requirement of raw material information) and has two baghouses for material handling and the painting-finishing booth.
The 100-year-old facility in Swissvale manufactures high-performance technical glass for the aerospace, defense, and other industries. In Kopp Glass’s appeal, it argued that NESHAP compliance “was not designed for operations like Kopp and could require Kopp to cease operations from Pot Furnace #2.”
Further, Kopp Glass alleges that ACHD “failed to adequately and appropriately assess whether it is technically and economically feasible for Kopp to comply.”
Kopp is asking ACHD to revoke or vacate the determination.
By way of background: The National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (or HAP) are also referred to as NESHAP. The NESHAP for glass manufacturing area sources applies to any glass manufacturing plant that is an area source of hazardous air pollutants emissions and operates one or more continuous furnaces which produce at least 45 megagrams a year or 50 tons per year of glass per furnace by melting a mixture of raw materials that includes compounds of one or more of the glass manufacturing metal HAPs.
You can read the appeal on the ACHD website.
You can read more about NESHAP on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website.